


come take my hand, in the clouds

by OceanMyth



Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [12]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: -katara about sokka, F/M, Fluff, Stargazing, aang and katara are soft for each other, aang likes braiding katara's hair, and therefore so much fun to write, tandem-gliding, the problem with siblings is that they live rent-free in ur mind, two shots of pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26916778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceanMyth/pseuds/OceanMyth
Summary: Two times Aang and Katara went flying together. (At different times, in different places, in different ways). A look at some of the ways in which these two trust each other.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2113209
Comments: 10
Kudos: 52





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken (well, more or less butchered from) from “In the Clouds” by Katherine Lynn Rose, who incidentally is the only person I trust with making any sort of ATLA adaptation.

The first time Aang asks her to go tandem-gliding with him, Katara refuses. He’d explained the concept to her the night before, while they’d watched the sunset from the top of the house they were staying in while they were in Ba Sing Se, and she’d been… intrigued, but she’s not sure if she’s ready to try it yet.

“Katara?” Aang says, and she looks down into pleading grey eyes— she barely has to tilt her head now, he’s grown so much. He’ll be taller than her within the month, she thinks, and Katara isn’t as upset about it as she was on the day Sokka realized he was finally taller than her. That day will live on in infamy only— she pushes the memory of Sokka’s cackling away. She’d gotten him back later anyway.

Aang offers her his hand, and his other hand is holding his glider, and she knows what he’s doing. What he’s asking her to do. She reaches out—and squeezes his hand gently, before stepping back from him.

“Not this time, Aang. I just don’t think I’m ready yet,” she answers, and he can’t hide his small frown at her words— then he shakes himself, smiles at her, and reaches up on the tips of his toes to kiss her on the forehead before taking off. She stands back, under the eaves of the Earth King’s palace as he flies over Ba Sing Se. 

She loves watching him on his glider, how he dances and glides like a bird, floats like a cloud, how he loops and spirals to tune of the cheering crowds of fascinated children that gather whenever he takes flight. But gliding high above the ground, even tucked safely in Aang’s arms, is not for her. Katara is content where she is right now.

When he lands, she returns his kiss, and they take the stairs down into the city together. They’re running a bit behind to the gathering at the Jasmine Dragon, but not by much. Sokka and Toph show up later than them anyway.

The second time he asks her to go tandem-gliding with her, she’s tempted, but still ultimately says no. She looks up at him, and his grey eyes look like storm clouds about to burst, dark and heavy, and he’s looking  _ at her _ like that— and her breath catches in her throat— but she’s still not ready, and she steps aways and smiles. He still leans in and presses a kiss to her forehead before taking off. This time, she’s not nearly as satisfied, watching him soar above her, with her own two feet still on the ground.

The third time he asks, hand open, inviting her to go with him without words, she accepts. The brilliant beam on his face alone, when he tugs her close to him and pops open the glider’s wings, makes her decision worth whatever discomfort this adventure may bring.

And there is discomfort. She’s only felt this kind of weightlessness a few times before, and it’s always been accompanied by danger and terror—so when Aang launches them into the sky she flinches. His arms tighten around her, and she clings to him and the glider. There is nothing in her mind but fear, and the memories the sensation brings up are anything but pleasant.

Appa diving low across the water, to avoid the fireballs that singe the ends of her hair.

Diving out of the way to avoid Combustion Man, then Azula, in the Western Air Temple.

Swooping across the cavern floor in Ba Sing Se, to catch Aang in her arms as he fell.

Aang sets them down less than a minute after they take off.

Katara opens her eyes again. He has one of her hands in his, and squeezes gently, and she only then realizes that she’s holding the glider’s main shaft so tightly that her knuckles are white.

“Are you ok?” he asks, and the  _ ground here looks incredible _ . Such lovely grass. Even distracted by the pebbles as Katara is, she can still feel Aang’s concerned gaze on her. So she nods quickly, hoping to end the conversation. He lets go of her hand, tilts her chin up, and rather than look into those concerned grey eyes, as he opens his mouth to ask again, she buries her face into Aang’s neck instead.

He doesn’t say anything, just rubs the back of her neck gently. She leans in to his hug, closes her eyes for a second. Aang is always so  _ warm _ . 

“Let’s just go to bed, okay?” he whispers against her ear, and it sounds like he’s giving up on them sharing a flight together. She pulls away and looks at him. Takes a deep breath.

“I want to try again,” she says firmly, because she won’t back down now. She agreed to do this with Aang, and she’s not backing out. Aang takes a deep breath himself, then nods at her. She knows he’ll support her whether she chooses to fly with him or not. Katara holds tight to Aang and the glider, and he pops out the wing-panels one more time. 

She doesn’t close her eyes this time, when they take off, and it helps the dread in her stomach settle out— she can see Aang, and she can see the world around them, and she’s laughing now, and she can’t see Aang’s face but she knows that he’s smiling as brightly as the sun sinking down behind the hills, as they spiral through the clouds together.

The sunset is glorious.


	2. Chapter 2

The sunset is fading from the sky, vibrant pinks and blazing orange fading into quiet violet and shining stars. Katara’s hands tighten on Appa’s reins, as Aang gently tugs on a particularly stubborn knot. It’s probably from the last time they were practicing waterbending together, or maybe the strong wind they’d had to fight with earlier in the day. 

Aang has set the comb aside now, and is just using his fingers. Once he’s finished with the knot, he doesn’t pick the comb back up, instead rubbing at the tension in her upper neck with deliciously warm fingers, and this is definitely the application of firebending she appreciates most. Forget about lighting fires for the two of them, having his warm hands pulling the tension from her neck and back is  _ heavenly _ .

Once she’s completely relaxed— Katara knows that there’s no way she can move at this point, she feels boneless, like if she even tried to shift her weight she’d wind up dripping off Appa’s side— Aang goes back to her hair. He’s almost done with it, the comb glides through her hair like a canoe in the water when the dawn comes shining over the ice, smooth and effortless. He sets the comb aside once again, and begins to braid.

She sighs and tips her head back, just a bit, and the stars catch her attention once again. It doesn’t take him long to finish the braid— he’s had a lot of practice over the years. They have a while longer to go before they land for the night, so she reaches back and grabs his hand, not wanting his warmth to disappear back into the reaches of Appa’s saddle. 

Aang slides closer to her, and the hand that she was holding quickly turns into his arms wrapping around her waist, and his chin tucked into the crook of her neck. When he breaths it tickles her neck, and makes her hair loops flutter.

“What are you looking at?” he asks, breaking the silence they’ve been sitting in for so long.

“Just the stars, I guess. They look so different here, from in the South Pole,” she answers, and the silence falls back between them again for a moment, before she chases it away for good. “It’s weird not knowing their names. Looking up into the sky without being reminded of all the stories my Mom told me as a kid. I can’t find any of the constellations here, and there are no lights dancing on the horizon. It didn’t bother me as much before, when we were travelling to end the war— there was too much to worry about, and we had a map, so using the stars to guide our way was silly and it didn’t matter if they were strange— ” she pauses, and Aang finishes her thought for her.

“—but now that everything is over, it’s just another little thing that you can’t stop thinking about. Another reminder that you’ve travelled further from home than you ever thought you would. A reminder that the future you imagined for yourself is different than the one you’re living,” he says, and she doesn’t have to see his face scrunched up with thought.

“Is that how  _ you  _ feel? Or are you just taking the words out of my mouth again?” she teases, and he chuckles against the back of her ear.

“A little bit of both,” he replies. “For me...the stars didn’t change, you know? I was in the ice for a  _ hundred years _ and those are still the same stars that I’ve seen all my life,” his voice drops low, and things are suddenly a lot more serious, “And looking at them… it’s—” he stops. 

It doesn’t matter that he’s not speaking anymore. Katara knows what he was about to say. She remembers the nights while they were first travelling together, when he’d wake up in the middle of the night with a muffled sob, when he’d slip off into the woods to cry after seeing her and Sokka there with him. It doesn’t happen anymore, but she still remembers how the ground felt pressing against her cheek as she waited for him to come back.

“ _ Sweetie- _ ” she says. 

“Anyway—” he shakes his head, and the flutter of his eyelashes on her ear tells her that he’s trying to blink away memories of his own. “That’s not where I was trying to go with this. I—the stars haven’t changed, since I knew them, and I knew them  _ all _ .” His eyes are closed in grief, she knows, when he stops to take a second. “So I know they’ll probably still feel like strangers, but would it help if I named them for you?” he asks. 

Katara purses her lips, and she’s glad that Aang can’t see the expression on her face. Because she’s not just answering this for her, but for the hope and excitement she can hear in his voice.

“I’d like that Aang,” she says, and he leans down and whispers something to Appa. The reins slip from her hands as he pulls her back into the saddle with him, gently tugging her down next to him. They are sprawled across the middle of Appa’s saddle and Katara’s head is resting on Aang’s shoulder.

Their fingers are laced together, and it looks like neither of them aim to change that anytime soon. She lets her thumb trace the edges of the arrow on the back of his hand. In a low voice he tells her names and stories, and his finger traces shapes against the darkness above.

The starshine on her face feels like a benediction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't supposed to take this long. This wasn't even supposed to be two chapters, but I have almost 0 self control and wanted to post so...¯\\_(ツ)_/¯   
> Two chapters it is!

**Author's Note:**

> The beginning of this scene was super inspired by the “Do you trust me?” scene from Aladdin, because it captures one of my favorite Kataang vibes perfectly. 
> 
> Tell me what you think in the comments, or come hang out on tumblr, @justoceanmyth


End file.
